Welcome to a New SMPS Year

On the first day of the SMPS 2011-2012 year, I am reflecting on my presidency and the liveliness of the Virginia board. We had so much fun this year developing new friendships and building on the foundation of our chapter.

Our board did an excellent job at embracing our theme in 2010-2011, Connecting the Dots:

• We had a variety of exceptional programming with topics ranging from search engine optimization to strategic planning.
• Our speakers included communications executives, professors, clients from agencies across the state and business owners.
• We introduced our brownbag program to a new region.
• We created joint programming opportunities with other marketing and communications organizations (AMA, LMA, PRSA).
• Our annual conference featured two keynote speakers with breakout sessions.
• Our social media presence spiked -  we added over 600 new followers to our Twitter page, @SMPSVA; 84 likes on Facebook; and 255 members in our LinkedIn group.
• I launched the blog President’s Notes as a touch point for our SMPS community, http://ltwhitaker.wordpress.com/
• We launched our new website!! Thank you to Frankie Bailey for the amazing redesign, http://frankiesfolio.com/

I look forward to the amazing programs and initiatives our incoming president, Tracey Gould, has planned for the year ahead. I wish her all the best in her year as our fearless leader.

Thank you all for a fantastic term!

LaTonya Whitaker, SMPS Virginia Past President